Monday, August 8, 2016

Back in Time

by Sandy KelloggAquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park AuthorityVRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair

VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

Last week I got to go back in time! No, not in a fancy sports car hitting 88
miles an hour, although I may have come close on 81 south on a couple of
downhill stretches, I went to camp!
Every year I take a group of Boy Scouts to summer camp. I have done some really cool things. I've canoed a week on the New River, covering
50 miles in a canoe. Rafted through the
New River Gorge, listening to stories about Mary Draper Ingles walking back down banks of the
river that we went screaming past. This
camp, however, has a special place in my heart.
For a week we go back to the time of the Mountain Men. They were a tough lot! Open fire cooking, no showers, shooting black
powder, blacksmithing, and my personal favorite, long evenings by the campfire
with my guitar and no cell service.

My troop has gone to the same summer camp ten years in a
row - Camp Ottari, just south of Blacksburg, near Claytor Lake. I met a lot of other adult leaders, ready to
give up a week of their summer and their vacation days just to come up and run
a camp for their scouts. It reminded me
of what we all do, and why we do it. Our
parks and recreation programs get kids in motion, teach them physical skills or
art or music, and get them out there!

Interestingly,
it was as a new trend appeared that I was headed for an old school camp - I
actually caught a Pidgey sitting on my scoutmaster's arm on the way to
camp! Yes, I play Pokemon Go. It is not to level up or get the rare ones,
although I'm proud of my Pikachu, it is to understand a completely new
paradigm. Suddenly people are outside
and wandering around, finding parks and facilities they did not know existed,
and actually walking just to hatch those eggs.
Mythical creatures are appearing in real life backgrounds, making me
wonder who caught them before the game?
It's exciting, imagining what the next adventure will bring, whether
living in the past or imagining the future.

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VRPS is a private, non-profit professional organization, founded in 1953 and incorporated in 1956. Its purpose is to unite all professionals, students, and interested lay persons engaged in the field of recreation, parks and other leisure services in the Commonwealth of Virginia, into one body. VRPS is an affiliate of the National Recreation and Park Association.